"The sight of the flower on the tree was more beautiful that the sent"

One Part Woman, set in an unnamed Tamil village, is a poignant story about a husband and a wife, which is put under a lot of strain due to the couple being unable to conceive, and the desperate both they and their families take, for them to be able to do so. 

What stood out most to me was the fact that Poona was the one who was subject to the worse of it all. From the very beginning, she is put under pressure to conceive, 'The only way to save oneself [from gossip and ineundoes] was to conceive in the first month of marriage...His mother, who was patient for six months, started Ponna's treatment soon after that.'  Throughout the book, Murugan does a great job of highlighting the cultural system where the wife is the one who has to bear the burden of 'infertility'. 

Murugan also beautifully depicted the customs and rituals of a community, and how deep that belief is ingrained into people. As a modern reader, it may seem ridiculous to us, seeing a couple praying and offering sacrifices to be able to have a child, but Murugan manages to craft the word in such a manner that the story avoids the fate of seeming over the top. We see the beauty of the rituals and feel the pain that Kali and Poona suffer. We feel their desperation, and we understand why they act the way they do. 

But, just as "the sight of the flower on the tree was more beautiful that the sent," is the idea of Poona conceiving more appealing than her actually being able to do so? In our journey to find out, we unravel what it means to exist in a complicated system of gender inequality, casteism, tradition, and rebellion.